The sky is blue on
blue ocean
endless sighing, sinking, lifting ocean
small crests and valleys of deep thankless blue
cast against blue sky
stretching in a gradient of marshmallow to turquoise to
deep shimmering gray
dull sterling silver
this palette of color sweeping across slow, lapping waves
as if on a thick canvas

The beach is empty
rocky, too long forgotten since volleyball and
cherry popsicles
dripping down smooth sticks
that taste like sawdust when you bite them
and onto your hands
so sticky

Two people
black against the mirage of blue
on a lonely beach
there is nothing unusual

But they feel it
I do too
it’s in the rain, the intangible coolness that seems to be warming
the distant echo of fragile birds
the waves that fall on the beach in the afternoon

Two lone figures
on a rocky beach
blue sky on blue water
and as I watch
over lapping waves and changing sky
both suddenly
lost in the moment.